Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 10:04 AM

An investigation by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" has turned up evidence of widespread food-safety issues at sports venues across the country. Our two East Bay pro sports facilities didn't acquit themselves too well. 34 percent of the vendors at McAfee Coliseum reported "critical" violations, including an absence of handwashing equipment. And 19 percent of the vendors at Oracle Arena failed the test, with special scrutiny being extended to some yucky potato salad that was left out an an unsafe temperature, only to be put back in the fridge to be resold the next day (Memo to self: time to switch to garlic fries.)

Meanwhile, across the bay, only 13 percent of the vendors at Candlestick Park were proclaimed unsafe, and just 4 percent at AT&T Park. Perhaps the departure of the A's and Raiders would be in our best interest after all?

Worst violator on the list: Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, where 100 percent of the vendors had at least one critical violation. If I were the CEO of a large orange juice company paying mightily to display my brand name on the stadium, I might have something to say about that.